A pair of free throws with less than seven seconds left helped the Adel-Desoto-Minburn Tigers boys basketball team survive a scare in the first round of the Class 3A Substate 7 bracket. ADM traveled to Gilbert last night for their playoff opener against the North Polk Comets, a team the Tigers handled by 18 points in Adel in late December. Sophomore Nate Mueller capped off a perfect eight for eight night from the free throw line with a pair of makes with 6.5 seconds left, and ADM contested a game-winning shot from Comet senior Braden Hoksbergen for a 62-61 victory. The game featured 14 lead changes and was tied seven other times. ADM head boys basketball coach Aaron Mager shared his thoughts with the Raccoon Valley Radio Network on surviving the first round against North Polk. “I got to give North Polk a ton of credit (for) the way they played,” Mager said, “They looked like a bunch of seniors who didn’t want to take their jersey off. They came out loose; they shot the ball really well from the perimeter especially. Those are all things we talked through, prepared for, knew would happen, but you still have to go out and get enough stops to take care of them. We barely just did enough (to win).”

North Polk buried 10 total three-pointers in the setback. ADM and North Polk traded the lead nine times over the final eight minutes helping the Tigers improves to 13-10 overall with the victory. They’ll head back up to Gilbert Thursday night for a tangle of Tigers in a matchup between the brackets second and third seed. The Raccoon Valley Radio Network will have live play by play coverage of the game on True Country K 107.9 FM, raccoonvalleyradio.com, and the KKRF mobile app. Pregame comments start at 6:30 p.m. and tip-off set for 7 p.m. at Gilbert High School.